Monday, August 31, 2009

When Congress Returns

The 111th Congress has some important issues to consider as they begin the second session.
Much has happened since adjournment for the month of August.

A special prosecutor, and both the Senate and House should start probes into the misdeeds
of former vice president Cheney. So much had been back channeled and stove piped that I
do not think even Mr. Cheney can remember it all.

It is a sad, sad state of affairs that has come to light in the last few weeks. If even half of the
allegations are proven to be truthful it makes one wonder, are we a nation of laws? Are some
people above the law? Were there just a couple of rouges, or is this just the tip of the iceberg.

Is it possible that in this day and age government officials can do what ever they want and escape punishment? Are more "bigwigs" doing wrong? Are laws to be laughed at, and only
applied to the poor and down beaten; the common man?

How can we as freedom loving Americans even begin to tell any other country how they
should promote democracy and decency, and honor? We can not run our own country
according to the laws of the land.

Stand up America, let your voices be heard. This abuse of justice must be stopped. Tell your
elected officials loud and clear: enough is enough!

Jerald Terwilliger
National Chairman
American Cold War Veterans, Inc.
"We Remember"

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Ask Secretary Gates about the Cold War Medal

Now is the time to ask Secretary of Defense Gates if he is in favor of the Cold War Victory Medal,
and will he support and issue the medal this year. Go to http://www.defense.gov to ask your
question.


http://www.defenselink.mil//news/newsarticle.aspx?id=55540

By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Aug. 19, 2009 – Got questions you’d like to pose directly to the defense secretary or chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff? Now is your chance!

Robert M. Gates and Navy Adm. Mike Mullen have launched interactive, virtual town hall sessions through the Internet.

The initiatives are part of a broad administration effort to connect more closely with the military, the American public and people overseas. The goal, officials explained, is to provide a forum for people to ask questions or offer suggestions or insights and get direct feedback.

The new Defense Department home page that went live this week features a prominently placed “Ask the Secretary” section. Anyone visiting http://www.defense.gov -- military members, American citizens, people overseas -- can submit a question to Gates.

Questions will be accepted for two weeks, then participants in the town hall will have another two weeks to vote on the questions submitted. The secretary will answer the five to 10 questions that top the list.

Meanwhile, Mullen launched an “Ask the Chairman” venue yesterday that enables anyone to pose a question to him via YouTube. The virtual town hall is open to everyone, whether they’re in the military or a military family or simply care about military issues, officials said.

Viewers can ask questions about whatever is on their minds -- the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq, what the military is doing for wounded warriors and families, the new Post-9/11 GI Bill or another topic of interest -- by visiting http://www.youtube.com/dodvclips.

“The chairman really wants to have a conversation with the troops akin to the way he does all-hands calls at bases all over the world,” Navy Capt. John Kirby, Mullen’s public affairs officer, told American Forces Press Service. "He wanted that conversation to be as interactive as possible and reflective of what is on their minds.”

Aug. 31 is the deadline to submit video questions. After the deadline, Mullen will watch questions submitted by YouTube viewers, then respond in a podcast, officials said.

Price Floyd, principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, said taking advantage of new media tools will enable Pentagon leaders to engage in an important two-way conversation with the public.

“We do live in a democracy, and that feedback from people is important to know what they’re thinking, what they believe is important,” he said. “It’s their national security policy, it’s not ours. It’s theirs. The president was elected, and he appointed people here at the Defense Department to lead, but it starts with the American people.”

The White House is planning a similar interactive venue for President Barack Obama to take questions directly from U.S. troops deployed in the U.S. Central Command area of operations.

(If you have questions or comments about this story, contact the reporter at donna.miles@osd.mil.)

Jerald Terwilliger
Acting Chairman
American Cold War Veterans, Inc
"We Remember"

Sunday, August 16, 2009

National Security Said It Was A War

From a 1950 report by the National Security Counsel prepared for President Truman. A portion
of the report NSC 68 of 1950



But NSC 68 does not stop at American domination over the Soviet Union in a bipolar world, the free world and the communist world. NSC 68 declares that this Cold War struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union is, in fact, a "real war":

"The whole success of the proposed program hangs ultimately on the recognition by this Government, the American people, and all free peoples, that the cold war is is fact a real war in which the survival of the free world is at stake."

Describing the Cold War as a real war, NSC 68 now lays out aggressive political and military actions that the United States can take to win this war. It calls for to wage "overt psychological warfare calculated to encourage mass defections from Soviet allegiance and to frustrate the Kremlin designs in other ways." NSC 68 also calls for the United States to use covert means to wage "economic warfare and political and psychological warfare with a view to fomenting and supporting unrest and revolt in selected strategic satellite countries." Finally, NSC 68 calls for the development of "internal security and civilian defense programs" in order to prepare the American people to accept the Cold War and the need to be prepared to fight and win global nuclear wars.

Jerald Terwilliger, Acting Chairman

American Cold War Veterans

Saturday, August 15, 2009

The Domino Theory in Southeast Asia

From the Air Force and the Cold War 2005

National Security Action Memorandum 288 in March 1964 repeated and built on the Domino Theory as a basis for US involvement in Southeast Asia.
“We seek an independent non-Communist South Vietnam,” it said. “Unless we can achieve this objective in South Vietnam, almost all of Southeast Asia will probably fall under Communist dominance (all of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia), accommodate to Communism so as to remove effective US and anti-Communist influence (Burma), or fall under the domination of forces not now explicitly Communist but likely then to become so (Indonesia taking over Malaysia). Thailand might hold for a period with our help, but would be under grave pressure. Even the Philippines would become shaky, and the threat to India to the west, Australia and New Zealand to the south, and Taiwan, Korea, and Japan to the north and east would be
greatly increased.”52
However, Vietnam and other wars of national liberation were regarded as secondary in importance to the Cold War and took place in its shadow. In 1964, Air Force Chief of Staff LeMay said, “I point out that you cannot fight a limited war except under the umbrella of strategic superiority. For example, we would not have dared go into Lebanon ... without strategic superiority which kept the enemy air force off.”53
Vietnam
Also To keep the dominoes from falling in Southeast Asia, US forces went to war in Vietnam.
There were numerous similarities to the Korean War. Like Korea, Vietnam was a side issue to the Cold War. As in Korea, the Russians supplied and equipped the Communist side.as in Korea, Soviet troops took part in the combat. The first SA-2 surface-to-air missile battery to shoot down a US aircraft in Vietnam was manned by a Soviet crew.

Jerald Terwilliger
National Vice Chairman
American Cold War Veterans, Inc
"We Remember"

Friday, August 14, 2009

Russian Prime Minister Putin Pledges money and military aid to Abkhazia

Associated Press Writer

Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited the separatist Georgian region of Abkhazia on Wednesday, promising to provide nearly $500 million in military aid and shrugging off Georgian protests.

Putin's visit came on the anniversary of the cease-fire in last year's war with Georgia, during which Russian troops and separatist forces ousted Georgian forces from the territory of Abkhazia and another breakaway Georgian province, South Ossetia.

The Georgian Foreign Ministry strongly protested Putin's trip as "yet another attempt to destabilize the situation and escalate the tension in the Caucasus region."

After the war, Russia recognized both regions as independent, a move either denounced or ignored by all other countries except Nicaragua. Putin said Wednesday that Russia wouldn't change its mind.

"The situation has changed radically, and there will be no return to the past," he said.

Putin urged Russian businesses to invest in Abkhazia, adding that other nations "who are still waiting will come later and will simply pay more."

"Frankly speaking, Abkhazia doesn't need to be recognized by anyone but Russia," he said after the talks with Abkhazia's separatist leaders.

In an interview with the Abkhazian media published Wednesday, Putin accused Washington of forcing its allies to toe its line against Russia after the war.

"There are many who support us in the West," Putin said. "They all feel a certain pressure from the most powerful NATO member - the United States. After the end of the Cold War, some people in the United States got an illusion they don't have to follow any rules and do what they want."

He added on a less defiant note that now "all have come to realize that ... no country in the world can play the role of a global policeman."

The war in Georgia drove the Russian-U.S. ties to their lowest point since the Cold War times, and the issue remains an irritant in relations between Moscow and Washington despite President Barack Obama's efforts to improve ties with the Kremlin.

The Georgian Foreign Ministry said the visit to Abkhazia by Putin, whom it described as "the main initiator and ideologist of the war" against Georgia, demonstrated that "Russia continues to defy the internationally recognized norms and principles of international law, its own international commitments and reputation as well as the norms of civilized conduct."

Shortly after Putin left Abkhazia, a small explosive device blew up in a garbage container on Sukhumi's sea promenade, city police said. No one was hurt. Police would not speculate on who was responsible.

In recent weeks, both Russia and Georgia have trumpeted their competing versions of which side started the war.

Russia says it was responding to a Georgian assault on South Ossetia, whose residents mostly have Russian passports. Georgia says it was acting to repel invading Russian troops and accuses Russia of scheming to take over all of Georgia.

Putin dismissed suggestions that Russia's presence in Abkhazia and South Ossetia reflected imperial ambitions.

"These are small republics, small countries, but there are many such examples in the world. There is nothing exclusive in this," he said in an interview with the Abkhazian media.

Putin compared the Georgian breakaways to San Marino and Monaco. "All of them, these small European countries, have special relations with their neighbors," he said. San Marino and Monaco are microstates with strong relationships with Italy and France, respectively.

"Russia is providing and will provide economic, political and, if necessary, military assistance to Abkhazia," he said, adding that Russia will spend 15 billion to 16 billion rubles ($465 million to $495 million) next year for Abkhazian military bases and border-control projects.

Russia offered no details on its military base plans. Russian news reports have said the Russian Navy could relocate part of its Black Sea Fleet to the Abkhazian port of Ochamchira when its lease at Ukraine's Sevastopol expires in 2017.

Besides military spending, Putin said that Russia would provide 10.9 billion rubles ($330 million) in economic and social assistance to Abkhazia in 2010-2011. Abkhazia's isolation since its mid-1990s break from Georgia has devastated its tourism and its wider economy.

Jerald Terwilliger

National Vice Chairman, American Cold War Veterans, Inc.

LA to commerate fall of Berlin Wall

On Nov 8th La will build a wall across Wilshire Blvd. leave it in place for three hours. Then dignitaries will know down portions to coincide with it being Nov 9th in Germany the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall




In what government and arts officials are calling the most ambitious commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall outside of Germany, a symbolic re-creation of the wall that once separated East and West Berlin will be erected across Wilshire Boulevard in November.

The Wall Project, painted by professional and amateur artists, will close Sunday afternoon traffic on one of the city's busiest thoroughfares for three hours on Nov. 8 beginning at 3 p.m. The project involves the Culver City's Wende Museum and Archive of the Cold War, the city of Los Angeles, the German Consulate General in Los Angeles and other partners, and will be officially announced Thursday.

In a reenactment of the actual events, invited dignitaries will break down selected portions of the Wilshire wall, which will be placed directly in front of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Project leaders plan a live feed of the events between Los Angeles and Berlin, official sister cities since 1967. (Because of the time difference, it will already be Nov. 9 in Berlin, the day the wall came down in 1989).

Professional artists who will participate include "Obama Hope" muralist Shepard Fairey, L.A. muralist Kent Twitchell and Berlin-based Thierry Noir, noted for painting his brightly colored human figures on the real wall in Berlin. Twitchell said that he plans to create portraits of the two presidents who saw the beginning and the end of the Berlin Wall, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.

The Wall Project will be made up of two parts: The "Wall Across Wilshire" will have as its adjunct the "Wall Along Wilshire -- Eastside Gallery West," which will have a somewhat longer life in front of the 5900 Wilshire Blvd. building, remaining in place from Oct. 17 to Nov. 14.

During its short existence, the "across" wall will bisect the "along" wall, with one end of the "across" wall ending at LACMA's outdoor installation "Urban Light."

The location is "highly symbolic," said Justinian Jampol, president and founder of the Wende Museum. "It connects downtown to the ocean, those two cultural anchors to the city. Also, going through an area where there are lots of museums and cultural institutions, it's very reflective of what occurred in Berlin, because when that line was drawn through the city, it divided up the cultural institutions."

Symbolism aside, the location is not random: Wayne Ratkovich, owner of the 5900 Wilshire Blvd. building, sits on the nonprofit Wende Museum's board of directors.

From Oct. 23 to Nov. 7, 40 wall panels, all 11 feet tall and 3 feet wide, will be painted on the grounds of the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits in Hancock Park, adjacent to LACMA. Thirty of those panels will be used to construct the Wall Across Wilshire, and the other 10 will form the Wall Along Wilshire.

The work of graphic designer and political illustrator Fairey will be part of the "across" wall, along with the work of graffiti artists working with ArtStorm LA and arts students at the Otis College of Art and Design, USC, CalArts and USC. Twitchell and Noir will paint an additional 10 panels for the Wall Along Wilshire, doing most of their work in front of the 5900 building. The public will have the opportunity to observe the artists at work in both locations.

Jampol said the painting done on the Berlin Wall circa 1989 "was not art, it was a political act. It was not about showing the finished artwork, it was dynamic." He said that so many artists wanted to make their mark on the Berlin Wall they often began painting over another artist's work before the paint was dry.

Los Angeles officials had to sign off on closing Wilshire.

"We do this all the time," said Councilman Tom LaBonge, whose district includes the project site, mentioning a recent NASCAR-related event at the nearby Petersen Automotive Museum that also required the temporary closure of Wilshire. "Wilshire is the backbone of all the buses in the city, but . . . having had the experience of this closure near Fairfax for the Petersen, I knew it could happen."

Los Angeles German Consul General Wolfgang Drautz, who moved to Los Angeles just weeks ago, said that the Wall Project is the largest Berlin Wall anniversary commemoration that he is aware of outside of Berlin. Germany plans to donate as much as $40,000 to the effort, which Jampol estimated could cost $500,000.

"Look at the map -- that we are doing this here on the West Coast, in California, is symbolizing that it's not just a narrow, transatlantic relationship between Washington, D.C., and Berlin," Drautz said. "We are really looking forward to an event where all American cities can celebrate with us."

diane.haithman@latimes.com
Once again no mention of the people who were most involved: The men and women of the US Military, the Cold War Veterans. And, again I say this would be the most opportune time
to finally bring honor and equality to all veterans.

Jerald Terwilliger
National Vice Chairman
American Cold War Veterans
"We Remember"

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Shades of Cold War as Russian submarines spotted off US east coast - Times Online

Yes, Russia started flying their bombers again, held exercises with Venezuela, stopped in Cuba;
now their subs begin to make their presence known. Can anyone say Cold War II?


Shades of Cold War as Russian submarines spotted off US east coast - Times Online

Shared via AddThis

Jerald Terwilliger
National Vice Chairman
American Cold War Veterans, Inc.
"We Remember"

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Is the Obama Healthcare good for veterans?

Things are not quite fixed yet. The Obama Healthcare might still tax veterans using VA Healthcare from The Hill.


http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/vets-groups-concerns-on-healthcare-soothed-2009-08-03.html

Vets groups’ concerns on healthcare soothed
Posted: 08/03/09 08:12 PM [ET]
A leading veterans group said on Monday its concerns that healthcare reform would jeopardize the care of millions of veterans have been partly alleviated.

But one sticking point remains: ensuring that veterans who are participating in the Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare system would not be subject to a tax for uninsured or underinsured individuals.

Until that issue is fixed “our concerns are not fully resolved,” said Raymond Dempsey, the National Commander of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV). DAV was among six high-profile veterans groups that sent a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) last week expressing “grave concerns” over the House healthcare reform bill and warning that they would actively oppose it if several changes were not made.

Rep. Steve Buyer (R-Ind.), the ranking member of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, successfully offered several amendments that took care of most concerns: ensuring that veterans receiving VA healthcare could also enroll for additional health insurance and that the VA secretary would retain full authority to operate the VA healthcare system without interference from any new organizations or agencies established by the legislation.

Buyer also offered an amendment aimed at ensuring that veterans in the VA healthcare system would not be subject to a tax for uninsured or underinsured individuals. While the amendment was withdrawn, Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said that he would allow Buyer to offer the amendment when the bill is considered on the House floor later this year.

Buyer’s “amendments and bipartisan support from Chairman Waxman are big steps in the right direction,” Dempsey said in a statement. “The DAV will continue to do more analysis of this voluminous bill, not to mention future versions, before we can have true assurance that veterans are protected.

“But for now, we are pleased lawmakers are willing to make the fixes necessary to protect those who sacrificed to protect us.”

Jerald Terwilliger
National Vice Chairman
American Cold War Veterans, Inc.
"We Remember"